The 15 Books That Were The Highlight of 2015 For Me

Greetings bookworms! Today is Tuesday, and while I usually do a Top Ten Tuesday or a Teaser Tuesday post, since it is the end of the year, I am moving away from my usual schedule. Because you know what? Why the heck not?

So instead, today I will be sharing with you the 15 books that made my 2015 the best reading year ever. And hands down, this year has been the absolute best reading year I’ve had in a long time!

Also, quick note, I just got my ATAR results back from my exams and ended up with a 89.35! It’s the most amazing news and I am so hyped and excited because it’s over and above what I needed to get into my course for university. WOO HOO! LET’S CELEBRATE!

I started this year off strong, by reading the entire Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, centered around Greek and Roman mythology. This was, in fact, my first discovery of the absolutely famous author whom fans call “Uncle Rick”and my goodness, this series blew me away. I was, and still am, utterly in love with this series. It holds a very special place in my heart, especially the last book.

The last book in the series, The Blood of Olympus, was amazing. It was full of intense scenes, cuteness and I was just a mess of squealing, fangirling and arm flailing. And Leo Valdez. He is my bae. I love him. Leo is the main highlight of this series and I am totally not ashamed to obsess over his fictional amazingness. (Does that even make sense? Oh well.)

I had to read this book for school. It’s a coming-of-age, historical novel following a boy named Charlie Bucktin, set in Australia in the 1960s. All I can say, is that this novel is brilliant. The chapters are long, to the point where I was so frustrated (I think there are overall 7 chapters in the entire book, and it’s a 400+ page novel, WHAAAT?!).

However, despite that, there were no flaws in this. The character development is immense and wonderful, the story is mysterious, raw and there are twists that will keep you on your toes. This novel all around keeps you on your toes. Charlie was the most amazing protagonist, and his philosophical thoughts had me constantly thinking about people, about the world and so much more.

I was tempted to put the entire Throne of Glass series in this post, but I won’t cheat, and I will only pick the books that really hit me in the feels. And Crown of Midnight did that. It hit me right in the feels with it’s intensity and swoon-worthy scenes. I had never shipped Chaolaena as much as I did in this book, and it was torn away from me just as intensely as it had bloomed. AND I WAS NOT HAPPY. AT ALL.

But nonetheless, this book blew me out of the water. It was intense, a huge step up from Throne of Glass #1 and had me screeching like banshee for book three.

As the third book in the Throne of Glass series, this was once again, even better than Crown of Midnight. It was a bit slower, and focused mainly on character development, but I loved that about it. My favourite part of this novel was the interaction between Rowan and Celaena. MY FANGIRLING FOR THESE TWO WILL NEVER, EVER END. NEVER I TELL YOU.

I did not do a review for this book because IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE. I cannot even begin to explain my feels. This fourth book in the Throne of Glass series was badass, intense, and had my squealing with glee, screaming with terror, and crying with an overwhelming tsunami of feelings. This book left me in a hangover that lasted almost a month. I seriously could not deal. The Rowaelin scenes were to die for.

By far the best post-apocalyptic, paranormal angel story I have every read. It’s raw and gritty and dark. Susan Ee wrote it so well, and had me hooked from the very beginning. The banter between Penryn and Raffe was the best and total highlight of this novel.

The last book in the Penryn and the End of Days trilogy, left me so happy but also sad and unsatisfied at the same time. Everything ended and wrapped up perfectly, but I couldn’t help but wish for another book! The ending of this novel just screams: “Another book is yet to come!“

This was the first novel I read by Patrick Ness, and after reading it, I was immediately a huge fan of this amazing author. A Monster Calls was emotional. It was real and whimsical and really seeps its way into your core!

Another amazing read by Patrick Ness. This sci-fi was so unique and different to me that it got me invested in it almost immediately. The purposely misspelled words did frustrate the grammar queen within me at times, but that was drowned out by the action, the intrigue and the concept of this novel. The Knife of Never Letting Go broke my heart, and messed with my mind. I loved it.

Sarah J Maas is simply slaying it this year! Not only are her books the source of possible 80% of the book boyfriends on my list this year, she came out with an amazing new fairy-tale retelling series, starting with A Court of Thorns and Roses, based off of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. This is classified and New Adult, which you will know because of the hot and steamy scenes that had me fanning myself the whole way through! And let me just say that I fell in love with Rhysand. I don’t know why, I guess I like my fictional bad boys.

Do I need to even explain myself? All of you bookworms have been screaming at me to read this trilogy and when I finally did, I couldn’t believe I put it off for so long. I couldn’t stop reading it. I needed to know what was going to happen next, constantly. The love triangle in this series was absolutely beautiful, and is the only love triangle I have ever loved so hard to the point of crying over it. CAN’T THE THREE OF THEM JUST BE TOGETHER? For the record, I am a Jessa shipper through and through. I love Will, but JESSA.

Strong, sassy and independent female protagonist? Complex, three-dimensional, swoon-worthy secondary male protagonist and equally interesting and well developed supporting characters tied in with an AMAZING plot and the most beautifully descriptive and well-controlled writing = FEELS ALL AROUND. And it’s a re-telling of A Thousand and One Nights (which I am not familiar with at all by the way)!

An amazing portrayal of schizophrenia. Filer really did a good job of executing what it would be like to delve into the mind of a schizophrenic. Of course, I wouldn’t know exactly what it is like, but through this novel, I could feel the confusion, the lack of a clear line between what is reality and what is not, and it was all tied in with a heavily emotional backdrop that, by the end of it all, left me breathless. And the amount of quotes I got out of this book is ridiculous!

This was my first attempt into New Adult contemporary, and while I wasn’t too fond of how much sex there was in this novel, and how it was portrayed, Colleen Hoover still managed to pull me in and make me cry my eyes out through her writing. The dual perspective was done so well, and I loved reading from Miles’ point of view. This book was full of emotion.

Who is slaying it in books this year? That’s right, Sarah J Maas. I will be shouting praises to her for years to come, I think. The Assassin’s Blade is a series of novellas following Celaena’s life before her life in the Throne of Glass series. Sam Cortland: my poor, weak and emotional heart still aches.

Woo! There we have my best books of 2015! This was a marvellous year for reading and I can already feel that 2016 is going to be a step up in a good direction for reading too.

71 thoughts on “The 15 Books That Were The Highlight of 2015 For Me”

Josie it looks like we have an extremely similar taste in books! I’m a massive SJM fan and loved Queen of Shadows too, and Angelfall of course. I have still to read some of those Patrick Ness books and Heroes of Olympus!

Go Sarah J. Maas! Her Throne of Glass series is a favorite of mine. I actually was able to attend one of her signings this year and it was completely fantastic. Her books just keep getting better and better. The Blood of Olympus was a pretty awesome conclusion to The Heroes of Olympus series as well. I’m glad the series is over though. I’ve read for something different. Perhaps something less Percy/Annabeth oriented. And how have you only just read The Clockwork Princess this year? It has to be one of Clare’s best novels. I adored that entire series. You have some pretty good taste in books. 😉

I know right?! She is my favourite author of 2015. You’re so lucky! I totally NEED to go to one of her signings.
It was awesome, but I was just aching for more!
Yep, I only read the Infernal Devices trilogy this year, and I can’t believe I waited so long!
Oh why thank you ☺️

i love the amount of sjm you have on this list! i actually didn’t really like crown of midnight. okay, that’s not true. i had weird feelings about it. the problem wasn’t the book. it was that it didn’t interest me until the middle and in the middle, it sucked me in so i’m like, HOW DO I RATE THIS? HoF was wonderful, for sure! i haven’t read qos or tab but those are on my list too.

also the wrath and the dawn. for me, six of crows by leigh bardugo was my favorite book. heavily recommend it, if you haven’t read it already (:

It’s awesome, right? Oh, I totally get what you mean about Crown of Midnight! It’s so hard to rate a book when it ends up being like that. I was hooked from the beginning to end though.
Read The Assassins Blade first before reading Queen of Shadows! I hope you get to them soon.
Oh, right after I read the Grisha trilogy I will be jumping onto Six of Crows for sure. 😊

I’m so happy to see The Blood of Olympus on your list! I’m about to start the series but I’ve heard that the finale was underwhelming. So glad to see that you thought it was amazing! Now I can’t wait to binge the whole series. I’m reading Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods right now and it’s sooooo good!

There’s no way that I COULDN’T put Blood of Olympus on my list! I hope you enjoy the series, for me personally I was very invested in the last book.
Oh my goodness I bet it is! I haven’t read that yet.

Heroes of Olympus, Sarah J Maas and Angellfall were the best!!!! I only wish that there was another book coming in the Angelfall series. 😦 And congratulations for your ATAR score that’s incredible!! 😊😱😊

So much awesome in this post! I seriously, love that there is so much Sarah here!!! She is my absolute favourite and I am just getting to QoS this week. I haven’t read that many pages, but I know it will be 5 stars. The fact that you didn’t review it makes me nervous about my own feels! Good luck with your 2016 reads!! 🙂

Yep, I didn’t hold back on mentioning Sarah’s novels here, hehe. You haven’t read QoS yet?! Oh my gosh please keep reading quick! It was so intense for me – but I’m a very emotional reader so I don’t know if I can say the same for you.
Seriously, I still would to be able to review it right now!

Everybody loves Sarah J Maas so much. I’m kind of afraid to read her at this point. What if I don’t like her? Will I be forcibly ejected from the blogging community? It feels like a real possibility, haha.

Agh, yes I know how you feel! Don’t let the hype get to her! Be curious but don’t expect too much. While I personally fell in complete love for all of her work, who knows if I can say the same for you? Although I really hope you end up the same.
And there is no way you would get ejected! We accept popular AND non-popular opinions here. 💓

I FEEL YOUR CHAOLENA PAIN. Seriously shipped those two so hard, I was fangirl-all-caps-screaming at a ToG friend via Twitter during one lunch break because my poor, poor ship was being destroyed. Some awesome books on this list, and some I haven’t read that I need to – thanks for sharing!

Ugh yes! I was still holding on to the hope that they would come back to each other until halfway through Heir Of Fire. By then, Rowan had stolen my heart, hehe.
I hope you read the ones on this list that you haven’t yet!

Congratulations on your test results! And it seems like you had an amazing reading year, I mean Rick Riordan? Sarah J.Maas? Cassandra Clare?? They’re authors that would rip your heart out and still left you craving for more! Love this post.

Congratulations on your wonderful ATAR score!! What course are you interested in?
And you know by now…Throne of Glass is amazing and made up its fair share of space on my favourites list too. Your love for Rowan has to be shared around I’m sorry 🙂

Thank you, Liam! I’m interested in doing Creative Writing/Professional Writing and Publishing. I’m aiming to do a double major in both of those.
Oh yes it’s no surprise to me that I must share the love of the series and of Rowan! But can I just say… I CLAIM AEDION AS MY OWN. Mineeeeeee! 😆

Many congrats on your fabulous exam scores! See I knew you would do wonderfully! Off to university you go now!..Sarah J Maas slayed 2015 for me too… Her books were amazing and persuaded me to take a chance on the fantasy genre.. I love Rowaelin tons too! I’m glad an infernal devices book has made it on your list as you know I’m reading that at the moment! I’m team Jessa too!

Thank you! I’m so excited, now I must wait for a response back from my university. 😊
I’m so glad you came to love her books and took a chance on fantasy. It’s my favourite genre!
And there was no way that I COULDN’T include Clockwork Princess. YAY, TEAM JESSA! 💕

Clockwork Princess!! 😥 I swear every PAGE of that book kept ripping my heart apart. ALL THAT LOVE… god, my pour soul couldn’t stop crying. 😥
And… oh. my. god CHAOLAENA!!! I shipped them SO HARD in CoM and I announced my love for them to anyone who’d listen. Those who’d read the books kept telling me to wait and watch what happens… and then I understood why. Because IT happened. And crushed my heart and soul and everything I had in me. I just wanted to stop reading and curl up and cry in a corner but I COULDN’T because I wanted to know what happens next!! It was like self-torture!! God, Sarah J. Maas is CRUEL. *weep weep* 😥

I love how almost all of Sarah J. Maas’ books are on your list Josie haha! There are still quite some books on here I need to check out! They sound amazing 😊 AND ONCE AGAIN CONGRATS ON YOUR AMAZING SCORE ❤

Such a great choice of books! I definitely have to agree with you one these:
The Blood of Olympus
Jasper Jones
Penryn and the End of Days
The Knife of Never Letting Go
A Court of Thorns and Roses
SOOOO good! 😀 ❤

Woohooo! congrats on your exam scores! since I don’t live in Australia I don’t exactly know what they, but I’m sure you did amazing! haha, I love all the books on your lists, it made me smile to see your little mini reviews after each one 🙂

Thank you! I was so close to getting a 90 ATAR, which would allow me to get into any course, even the highest course such as Law (not that I want anything to do with that but) but I got 89.35 which is so good!

And I’m glad you liked this post! I didn’t even realise I had written a mini review for each until I looked at the word count and the length of this post! Hehe 😊